2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (May)

Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Sony/Columbia) Photo: Lacey Terrell

Still up in the air as to whether Tom Hanks or Matthew Rhys is the lead (or co-leads) of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood but since the film is based on the Esquire piece by Tom Junod (whom Rhys plays) I’m going to go with Hanks in supporting – a la his turn as Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks. That puts him at #1 for the month.

Al Pacino and Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman hold court, each looking for returns to the Oscar stage. Neither Oscar-winning actor has been nominated since their wins over 25 years ago. Can both make it in? We finally saw it happen again just two years ago with Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson in Three Billboards, with Rockwell winning. Pacino also has a small part in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, which only bolsters him here.

Speaking of Oscar winners looking for a comeback, Anthony Hopkins is aiming for a spot for The Pope. Unlike Pacino and Pesci, Hopkins was nominated three more times after his Best Actor win for 1991’s Silence of the Lambs. Going zucchetto-to-zucchetto with Jonathan Pryce as dueling popes for Oscar-nominated director Fernando Meirelles (City of God) seems too rich to pass up. Trouble is, Pacino, Pesci and Hopkins are all Netflix. Can the streamer really get three of five slots?

Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) could become one of the many directors who have steered themselves into a nomination for a film they’ve directed and he would do it not as the film’s lead but as its crucial supporting player. But is portraying Adolf Hitler in a satire going to play in 2019?

Elsewhere we have a handful of potential returning winners and nominees like Willem Dafoe (The Last Thing He Wanted), Jamie Foxx (Just Mercy) and John Lithgow (Untitled Roger Ailes aka Fair and Balanced) and, like Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt will next be seen in Quentin Tarantino’s Cannes premiere Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood next week.

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About Erik Anderson

Erik thanks his mother for his love of all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards together since he was in the single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself at GoldDerby, led by Tom O’Neill and then migrated over to Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), headed up by Sasha Stone before breaking off to create AwardsWatch. He is a member of the International Cinephile Society, GALECA (The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics), the International Press Academy and is the founder/owner of AwardsWatch.

2020 Best Picture Predictions

1917 (Universal) December 25
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Sony/Columbia) November 22
Ford v. Ferrari (20th Century Fox) November 15
Harriet (Focus Features) November 1
The Irishman (Netflix)
Jojo Rabbit (Fox Searchlight) October 18
Just Mercy (Warner Bros.) January 17, 2020
The Laundromat (Netflix)
Little Women (Sony/Columbia) December 25
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (Sony/Columbia) July 26

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